Khazal al-Sarhan

Khazal al-Sarhan was the commander of the New Syrian Army (NSyA) during the Syrian Civil War.

Biography
Khazal al-Sarhan was born in Syria to a Sunni Muslim Arab family, and he founded the New Syrian Army on 10 November 2015 during the Syrian Civil War. al-Sarhan was a veteran of the war against the Islamic State, a major jihadist group, and he kept an IS flag as a trophy of war; Bashar al-Assad's government tried to discredit him by showing a photo of him next to the flag, but this attempt failed due to the presence of cigarettes (which the Islamic State banned) next to the flag. al-Sarhan's group launched an offensive against the IS border town of al-Bukamal in June 2016, attempting to liberate the areas on the borders with Jordan and Iraq from the terrorists, and the NSyA became a new player in the conflict.